Nine-year-old Oskar Blum is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies, Beatles memorabilia, state quarters, miniature cacti and coral. When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, his inward journey towards some kind of peace takes him on an odyssey through the five boroughs of New York, as he attempts to solve the mystery of a key he discovers in his father’s closet…

Alternative covers

You know how later editions of a book will have complimentary quotes and “Winner of…” badges added (not always successfully, often an annoyance). There are two versions of the red hand cover, the second is a mirror image of that hand with a quote by Russell Banks on the thumb – “Don’t just check him out. Read him.”

The movie tie-in of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was published on 1 Novmber 2011 Publisher by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and is a rarity in being as compelling as the original. A close-up of Thomas Horn as Oskar Schell, covering most of his face with his hands, is compelling.

The UK paperback came out on 28 May 2010 (Penguin Books) and is quite a departure from the US versions.

There also seems to have been a limited edition but I’ve not more information about it at the moment.

Dan Wilbur’s site “is for people who do not have thousands of hours to read book reviews or blurbs or first sentences. I will cut through all the cryptic crap, and give you the meat of the story in one condensed image.” Here’s his version.

Lastly, the cover for a two book omnibus (Extremely Loud and Everything is Illuminated).